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Album was created 8/5/09 9:10 PM.
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought on July 1–3, 1863, was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and is often consideredas the war's turning point. Fought in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the Battle of Gettysburg saw 165,000 Union and Confederate soldiers clash in a three day battle that resulted in more than 51,000 casualties. On the third day of the battle, Confederate soldiers in an attack called Pickett's Charge reached the copse of trees near The Angle (a corner in a low stone wall) on Cemetery Ridge; this represented the farthest point north that Robert E. Lee's forces reached during the Civil War. For this reason the copse of trees is often referred to as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy.
Pickett's Charge was a disaster for the Confederate forces and ended Robert E. Lee's plan to move his forces north to Harrisburg Pennsylvania and on to Washington DC. While the Civil War continued on for two more years, the Battle of Gettysburg changed the dynamics of the war and General Lee was never truly on the offensive again.
Devil's Den is a location on the Gettysburg Battlefield. Devil's Den is a rocky area of boulders, shrubs and scrub trees, directly west of Little Round Top. The area between Devil's Den and Little Round Top is crossed by Plum Creek and is known as the Valley of Death and the Slaughter Pen due to the terrible losses both armies suffered on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Devil's Den gained importance in the second day of the fighting near Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, with a Confederate assault by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's First Corps through this terrain. Conducted by Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood, and including both the Texas Brigade and 3rd Arkansas, the charge was directed towards the left flank of the Union Army of the Potomac and hit Devil's Den as well as the high ground at Little Round Top. Devil's Den was defended by the Union III Corps division of Maj. Gen. David B. Birney, and later reinforced by the V Corps. The Confederate solders took Devil's Den but suffered terrible losses in the Triangluar Field and at Devil's Den during the battle.
Devil's Den is remembered as a location where Confederate sharpshooters fired on Union solders on Little Round Top with devastating results. The land between Devil's Den and Little Round Top where Plum Creek runs was called the Slaughter Pen because no one could survive long in that area of crossfire. Directly to the north of the Slaughter Pen was another place of bloodshed known as the Valley of Death where many Confederates were killed as they advanced on Little Round Top from the Wheatfield and Millers Forest.
Following the battle, several famous photographs of the Gettysburg Battlefield were taken in Devil's Den and the Slaughter Pen.
